Came a tribe from the North, brave and bold,Bearing banners of Silver and Gold;Tried and true to subdue all their foesGo Vandals, go mighty Vandals!

C'mon go Vandals, goFight on with hearts brave and bold,Foes will fall before your Silver and your Gold...The victory cannot be withheld from thee..So all bear down for Idaho...Come on old Vandals, go!

I-D-A-H-OIdaho, Idaho, Go! Go! Go!

The victory cannot be withheld from thee..So all bear down for Idaho...Come on old Vandals, go!

HistoryFirst sung at an Idaho football game in 1931, "Go Vandals, Go" was adopted as Idaho's only fight song. It was composed by J.M. "Morey" O'Donnell, a longtime Moscow attorney, when he was a freshman at the University. A native of Granite, Idaho (north of Coeur d'Alene), Morey was a child prodigy who began playing the piano at age six, was in an orchestra by 13, and was traveling the world with a dance orchestra by the time he entered the University in 1930.

At that time, Idaho's fight song was "On Idaho" which was sung to the tune of "On Wisconsin." The ASUI sponsored an annual songfest competition among the classes, and one of its purposes was to find a new fight song. "Go Vandals, Go" won the competition in 1930 and immediately became the Vandals only mantra. It was copyrighted by the University in 1931.

The chorus was written as whole notes and half notes so that it could be easily sung by a large crowd. Many school songs are difficult to sing because of the fast beat used to make them spirited. "Go Vandals" instead relies on a heavy drum beat and the nature of the words to carry the spirit. As a result, it is continually cited as one of the top college fight songs in America.(Courtesy UI Marching Band)